Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year
20 December 2011
I’d like to wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from everyone here at EPD magazine and epdonthenet.net.
I’d also like to take this opportunity to thank our readers and our sponsors for making it a successful year.
This time of year is traditionally when everyone looks to the future and tries to predict what will happen in the year ahead. Predicting the future is hard at any time, but with the continuing uncertainty over the Euro it is even harder this year. This hasn’t stopped afdec, the manufacturers authorised distributor group, from trying. Of course the prediction has been made with the disclaimer that if the Euro does crash then all bets are off.
Looking at this year’s figures, afdec estimated that 2011 saw the total available market grew by 2% to £3.14bn with most of the growth occurring in the first half of the year. The second half saw a decline that afdec estimates will continue into 2012. The decline will be worst in Q1 and gradually recover throughout the rest of the year.
Over the course of the whole year the total available market will decline 6% with the distribution total available market dropping 5%. Overall demand has been weak with the book to bill ratio staying under unity since it dropped below par in May ’11. However, some markets will stay strong, particularly the automotive market.
The main reason for the weak start to the year is overstocking. After the events in Japan and Thailand earlier this year, many manufacturers overstocked fearing the supply chain would be badly affected. We can now see that disruption in the supply chain was well below what was feared.
The market should pick up throughout the year, beginning with electromechanical parts in the first half and passives and semiconductors in the second half. This is because the overstock of electromechanical parts has been burned off quicker. The current economic uncertainty also plays a part with companies holding back on capital expenditure.
Contact Details and Archive...
Most Viewed Articles...